One of the leading champions of Aestheticism in American was Christian Herter, the proprietor of the Herter Bros. decorating firm in New York City. Christian directed an armada of over 600 designers and craftsmen as he undertook commissions for the mansions of such Gilded Age millionaires as Vanderbilt, Morgan, Gould, Crocker and Stanford. He patented 14 of his own original designs for wallpaper in 1879.
Sadly, few of these original Herter interiors remain intact today. The largest concentration outside of Manhattan disappeared in one cataclysmic event: the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire.
The Herter Brothers showroom in Manhattan contained not only Christian's original designs for wallpaper, but also those of leading Aesthetic Movement designers from England. Accordingly, the patterns in our Herter chapter readily coordinate with the other chapters of the Aesthetic Movement section, as well as the Morris and NeoClassical sections.